A5
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2020
Mike Siegel/Seattle Times
Mothballed 737 MAX airplanes are seen next to the Boeing 737 factory at Renton Municipal
Airport on Monday.
FAA clears Boeing 737 MAX to fl y
fl y is at least the beginning of the end of
Boeing’s MAX crisis.
And yet, even as Boeing grapples with the
logistics of modifying hundreds of planes
and returning them to the sky, its future is
weighed down by the massive fi nancial hit
from the grounding and the deep reputa-
tional damage from the tragic crashes.
As details of the causes of the crash trag-
edies surfaced over the past 20 months, Boe-
ing’s reputation for engineering excellence
has been shattered, while the FAA’s position
as the world’s arbiter of safety has been seri-
ously undermined.
The investigations have opened an
unprecedented window into Boeing’s
design, marketing and testing of the plane,
shedding an unfl attering light on many of
the participants.
A low point came with the release of
internal emails that revealed how the chief
technical pilot at Boeing Commercial Air-
planes had disparaged and deceived airline
customers. Specifi cally, he coaxed Lion Air
of Indonesia to drop its plan to have its pilots
train to fl y the new jet in full-motion simu-
lators. Just 17 months later, that airline suf-
fered the loss of 187 lives in the fi rst MAX
crash.
Before the pandemic struck, the expense
of building jets it couldn’t deliver had
drained Boeing’s fi nances. As deliveries of
the MAX resume, Boeing will begin again
to see revenue from the jet — though slowly
at fi rst.
Getting the total of more than 800
grounded MAXs into the air again is a mas-
sive challenge.
Boeing must help airlines get back into
service the MAXs that were fl ying before
the second crash and have been grounded
since. And it must also prepare for fl ight
the MAXs built after the grounding and
then deliver them to airlines — many which
are in no rush to receive planes during the
downturn.
By DOMINIC GATES
Seattle Times
Bradley W. Parks/Oregon Public Broadcasting
Ryan LeBlanc installs an antenna on a solar-powered trailer in Moro. Sherman County is using
the trailers to help fi ll internet dead zones.
Solar-powered trailers fi ll internet
dead zones in central Oregon
To the southeast of Sherman County,
Wheeler County is Oregon’s least popu-
lous. It ran into the same issue a few years
Sherman County is turning to tiny, shiny, ago when it was trying to bring residents up
sun-powered trailers to fi ll gaps in high- to speed. Sage Technologies worked with a
speed internet coverage in Oregon’s wind- Redmond-based solar company to devise
swept wheat country.
a solution that would fi t the terrain with-
The coronavirus brought a new sense of out the need for costly power from utility
urgency to the long-standing issue of bring- companies.
ing rural communities online.
What they came up with is a solar-pow-
As distance learning, remote work and ered trailer that can be easily moved to
telemedicine took root this spring, some wherever the need is greatest. The sun hits
Sherman County residents were still rely- a solar panel that charges batteries housed
ing on satellite internet or even dial-up, see- inside the trailer. Those batteries power an
ing download speeds of 1
antenna mounted to the
or 2 megabits per second .
trailer’s exterior. The
‘WHEN I CAN FLIP antenna catches signal
That’s far below the fed-
eral minimum standard
from fi xed towers and
THE SWITCH, SO
of 25 Mbps and hardly
rebroadcasts it to homes
capable of supporting a
in the newly established
TO SAY, AND SEE
Zoom meeting.
line of sight.
THE INTERNET
Though
Sherman
The trailers bring the
County has worked for
strength and stability of
ACTUALLY
years to upgrade its inter-
fi xed towers to homes
net system, the pandemic
that can’t see them. A
WORKING AT
laid bare an issue plagu-
handful of trailers has
THESE PEOPLE’S
ing rural communities
kept remote Wheeler
everywhere.
County homes con-
HOMES, IT’S ONE
“There’s places that
nected to the internet for
just can’t get internet like
years.
OF THE MOST
everybody else,” said Joe
The Oregon Legisla-
REWARDING
Dabulskis, the county
tive Emergency Board in
judge.
June set aside $20 mil-
THINGS THAT I
The challenge fac-
lion of federal CARES
THINK I’VE DONE
ing Sherman County and
Act money to fund rural
areas like it is both geo-
broadband
improve-
IN MY CAREER.’
graphic and topographic.
ments. Sherman County
Sherman
County
applied for and received
Ryan LeBlanc | owner of Sage
relies on a fi xed terres-
enough money to buy
Technologies in Bend
trial internet system, in
four solar-powered trail-
which hilltop towers
ers. The county posi-
broadcast internet signal to the surrounding tioned the trailers to target students, teach-
area.
ers and health care workers who couldn’t
In this north-central part of the state, peo- access tower signals.
ple often build homes between hills. Trees
“This is life-altering to be hooked up to
can grow there and the hills help stave off high-speed internet,” Dabulskis said.
high winds.
Sherman County has had less than two
However, those same hills block internet dozen confi rmed coronavirus cases since the
signals. Fixed terrestrial internet is a line-of- pandemic began . Its schools have been open
sight technology.
four days a week with a half-day of distance
“If you can stand outside your house and learning on Fridays. Dabulskis knows that
see the tower, you can get internet from it,” could change quickly, especially given the
said Ryan LeBlanc, owner of Sage Technol- rapid uptick in cases statewide.
ogies in Bend, “but if you can’t see it, then
“We’re always prepared that if we get a
you can’t get internet.”
spike in cases and we need to shut down,
Connecting homes down in the hollers we’re doing everything we can to be ready
isn’t as simple as building more towers. for that,” he said.
Those require power, which is expensive
Nearby, LeBlanc climbed the side of one
and harder to come by in far-fl ung places.
of Sherman County’s new broadband trail-
“There’s no one-size-fi ts-all solution,” ers to attach the antenna.
said Carrie Pipinich, senior project manager
“When I can fl ip the switch, so to say,
with the Mid-Columbia Economic Devel- and see the internet actually working at
opment District. She’s worked on issues of these people’s homes,” LeBlanc said, “it’s
rural connectivity for the better part of a one of the most rewarding things that I think
decade. “This is really local work,” she said. I’ve done in my career.”
By BRADLEY W. PARKS
Oregon Public Broadcasting
SEVENDAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA
TODAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
Twenty months after Boeing’s new 737
MAX was grounded worldwide following
two deadly crashes, the Federal Aviation
Administration on Wednesday approved
Boeing’s fi xes for the airplane and cleared
the MAX to return to service.
In a statement, the FAA said airlines that
have parked their MAX aircraft must make
required maintenance and system modi-
fi cations to prepare them to fl y again. The
agency will review each U.S. airline’s MAX
pilot-training program. And it will inspect
and issue an airworthiness certifi cate for
every MAX Boeing built after the March
2019 grounding order.
The long-delayed approval means the
MAX is on track to fl y passengers again in
the United States before year end. Jet deliv-
eries can resume and production in Renton,
Washington, will begin to ramp up again,
though very slowly.
The MAX has been grounded since
March 2019, after 346 people died in two
crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
Since the fi rst MAX crash two years ago,
Boeing has suffered through a relentless lit-
any of damning revelations, scathing inves-
tigation reports and discoveries of problems
that delayed this moment.
As Boeing struggles to survive a historic,
coronavirus-driven aviation downturn that’s
slashed global air travel to a quarter of what
it was a year ago, the FAA announcement
provides a rare lift.
Stan Deal, CEO of Boeing Commercial
Airplanes, called the FAA’s directive “an
important milestone.”
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said in a
statement “the lives lost in the two tragic
accidents” and the lessons learned from
the MAX crashes “have reshaped our
company.”
The FAA’s verdict that the jet is safe to
CLATSOP
POWER
EQUIPMENT , INC.
SALES • SERVICE • RENTALS
34912 HWY 101 BUS • ASTORIA
503-325-0792 • 1-800-220-0792
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
REGIONAL FORECAST
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
Seattle
51 40
Mostly cloudy,
showers
52 39
52 41
Cloudy
Cloudy
50 44
54 43
51 40
50 39
Cloudy, rain
A chance of rainA chance of rain
A little p.m. rain
possible
Aberdeen
Olympia
49/39
49/43
Wenatchee
Tacoma
Moses
Lake
49/40
ALMANAC
UNDER THE SKY
TODAY'S TIDES
Astoria through Tuesday
Tonight’s Sky: Deneb of Cygnus
is about 15 times as massive
as the sun and 50,000 times its
brightness.
Astoria / Port Docks
Temperatures
High/low ................................ 62/47
Normal high/low .................. 53/40
Record high .................. 64 in 1908
Record low .................... 28 in 1994
Precipitation
Tuesday ................................... 0.45”
Month to date ........................ 6.82”
Normal month to date ......... 5.94”
Year to date .......................... 53.21”
Normal year to date ........... 52.41”
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2020
Source: Jim Todd, OMSI
Sunrise today .................. 7:22 a.m.
Sunset tonight ............... 4:39 p.m.
Moonrise today ........... 12:18 p.m.
Moonset today .............. 9:05 p.m.
Full
Last
High (ft.) Time Low (ft.)
4:34 a.m.
3:33 p.m.
New
4:12 a.m.
3:11 p.m.
4:22 a.m.
3:25 p.m.
Warrenton
4:29 a.m.
3:28 p.m.
Knappa
5:11 a.m.
4:10 p.m.
Depoe Bay
Nov 21 Nov 30 Dec 7 Dec 14
7.4 9:59 a.m. 3.3
8.5 10:52 p.m. -0.3
Cape Disappointment
Hammond
SUN AND MOON
First
Time
3:27 a.m.
2:24 p.m.
7.4 9:06 a.m. 3.7
8.5 9:59 p.m. -0.5
7.5 9:29 a.m. 3.4
8.7 10:19 p.m. -0.7
7.8 9:43 a.m. 3.4
8.9 10:36 p.m. -0.2
7.6 11:00 a.m. 2.8
8.7 11:53 p.m. -0.2
7.5 8:37 a.m. 3.8
8.8 9:32 p.m. -0.7
City
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Dallas
Denver
Honolulu
Houston
Los Angeles
Miami
New York City
Phoenix
San Francisco
Wash., DC
Fri.
Hi/Lo/W
60/42/s
45/42/pc
63/52/pc
73/58/s
65/33/pc
85/74/pc
78/62/pc
69/53/pc
78/71/pc
48/42/s
86/61/s
60/46/pc
55/42/s
67/45/s
58/45/pc
60/44/c
77/60/pc
52/33/pc
86/75/pc
79/62/pc
70/51/pc
80/73/pc
61/48/s
86/59/c
61/44/pc
63/46/s
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy,
c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms,
r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice.
49/33
Hermiston
The Dalles 53/33
Enterprise
Pendleton 44/26
50/32
50/34
La Grande
45/25
51/36
NATIONAL CITIES
Today
Hi/Lo/W
43/32
Kennewick Walla Walla
49/37 Lewiston
54/33
51/41
Salem
Pullman
49/25
Longview
51/40 Portland
50/41
43/31
Yakima 49/30
48/38
Astoria
Spokane
44/29
Corvallis
51/34
Albany
51/34
John Day
Eugene
Bend
52/33
46/17
42/19
Ontario
51/27
Caldwell
Burns
43/14
50/26
Medford
50/28
Klamath Falls
42/17
City
Baker City
Brookings
Ilwaco
Newberg
Newport
Today
Hi/Lo/W
44/19/pc
52/41/pc
50/40/sh
50/38/sh
50/40/sh
Fri.
Hi/Lo/W
41/16/s
55/41/c
52/39/r
52/35/pc
52/37/pc
City
North Bend
Roseburg
Seaside
Springfi eld
Vancouver
Today
Hi/Lo/W
54/38/sh
50/31/c
50/39/sh
51/33/sh
51/40/pc
Fri.
Hi/Lo/W
56/37/s
50/28/pc
52/37/c
50/31/pc
51/37/pc